


Go For the Gold

by say_no_to_hugs



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Cuban Lance (Voltron), Enemies to Friends to Lovers, F/F, F/M, Fake/Pretend Relationship, Korean Keith (Voltron), M/M, Misunderstandings, Mutual Pining, Other, Pining, Possibly Unrequited Love, Summer Olympics, Unrequited Crush, klance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-08-19
Updated: 2017-04-22
Packaged: 2018-08-09 20:27:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 14,165
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7816033
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/say_no_to_hugs/pseuds/say_no_to_hugs
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Keith was Lance's mortal enemy. Sure he had no idea who Lance was, and yeah they didn't even compete in the same sport, but Keith was Lance's enemy, and Lance was determined to defeat him in the 2024 Summer Olympics.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. All that glitters

Somehow, Lance truly believed Keith was his biggest rival. It really didn't make sense considering the fact that A) Keith seemed to have no idea that Lance even existed, B) Lance had never really met Keith, and C) they two weren't even competing in the same sport. Nonetheless, Lance only believed he had one rival in the Olympics, and that was Keith Kogane.

Lance was considered by most to be the probable gold medal swimmer for all the events he was participating in during the 2024 Olympic Games. He had all the makings of a gold winner, he was fast, he was talented, and he was ridiculously confident. He had been swimming as long as he could remember. In fact, he grew up swimming in the waters of the Caribbean Sea and was practically born in the water. There was no doubt within anyone's mind that Lance would bring home at least one gold for the USA swim team, yet Lance still had a problem and that was Keith fucking Kogane.

Somehow Keith was considered a national treasure by the media and he wasn't even representing the United States. Lance was frankly offended that the media had its attention focused on a fucking Canadian instead of one of its own athletes. Lance considered it a personal insult to his honor after a buzzfeed article listed him as the second hottest Olympic athlete after Keith.He wasn't even mad that he was second, he was mostly irritated that he lost to a guy with a mullet when it was clear that he had the superior hair and body.

That is why Lance had made it his personal goal to destroy Keith or die trying. Never mind the fact that they weren't technically competing against each other. Lance was going to beat Keith Kogane. Lance was going to win.

August 10th, 2024

Lance honestly would've thrown Pidge off a cliff a long time ago if they weren't on the same team. As much as he loved the small genius he sure did hate their loud mouth. Apparently they had tweeted that Lance was “obsessed with Keith like a kindergartener with their first crush” and their tweet had blown up. It caused numerous fangirls to ship them and drew the attention of their overzealous coach Coran prompting him to lecture the whole team of the dangers of fraternizing with the enemy. Pidge got a kick outta the whole situation and seemed to find it extra hilarious while they were telling Hunk the whole story.

“So then Coran pulled out a bunch of fucking bananas,” Pidge stopped to giggle, “and he pointed them at Lance and fuckin rolled a condom on one them while holding eye contact!” Pidge was wheezing at that point while Lance frantically tried to shut them up, “And-and then he fucking said, “If you insist on sleeping with members of other teams, I can't stop you. I don't care which one of you is doing the other, but please use protection,” I was screaming!”

Lance buried his head in his hands and groaned. “This is all your fault Pidge if you hadn't lied to the whole world about me being obsessed with that stupid mulleted Canadian this would of never happened.”

Both Pidge and Hunk stared at Lance in fond exasperation before glancing at each other and sighing in unison.

“What the heck is that supposed to mean!” Lance shouted.

“Dude,” Hunk only sighed again and patted Lance on the back. He shook his head sadly at his best friend.

“Oh Lance, poor, dumb, sweet, lovable, idiotic Lance, you cannot tell me that you aren't obsessed with Keith Kogane.”

“I'm not obsessed! Why the hell would you say that!”

“Lance I really didn't want to have to do this but if you insist on denying your obsession,” Pidge sighed and pulled out their phone, “ I will not hesitate to pull out the receipts.”

Lance laughed nervously running a hand through his short brown hair, “As if you have receipts.”

Pidge sighed, “July 29, 2024, you texted the squad group chat at 1:30 am asking, in all caps, and I quote, “does anyone kno who the fuck Keith Kogane is so I can beat his ass flex emoji angry face emoji flex emoji.” To which I replied “literally no one cares Lance it's 1 in the fucking morning go to sleep.””

Lance stared at Pidge, “that doesn't even prove that I'm obsessed.”

“That was only the beginning from that point on nearly all your texts in the group chat had something to do with Keith including but not limited to: a daily countdown until you could beat Keith's ass, more than 10 links to articles about Keith, 15 complaints about how ugly Keith's mullet is, and multiple confusing compliments within insults. Not only that but when we arrived you literally couldn't stop babbling about finally getting to face your rival for the first time. To top it all off, I've caught you multiple times on video whispering about “ that fucking beautiful asshole Keith” while training, which is honestly a little creepy dude, and you were stalking the Canadian building and the taekwondo team on your free time earlier today.” 

Lance opened and closed his mouth trying desperately to come up with evidence to counteract Pidge’s claims, and when he inevitably found none, he settled on a weak comeback, “Yeah well at least I don't have a crush on two volleyball players who could spike my head off!”

Pidge sighed, “Okay first of all, Allura is a libero so she doesn't even do offensive moves like spiking, second, shiro is a setter you dweeb plus he's too nice to ever spike someone's head off, third Keith is literally number one in the world right now at taekwondo he could probably snap you in half like a toothpick.”

Lance sighed dramatically, “Wow Pidge I feel betrayed! You have zero faith in my fighting skills. I could totally kick Keith's ass any day of the week.” 

At that statement Hunk who was previously watching the debate with great amusement burst into loud guffaws at Lance’s idiotically confident statement.

Lance gasped feeling the icy cold knife of betrayal pierce his heart, “ Et tu Hunk, how could you!” Hunk’s only reply was another peal of laughter. “Fine,” Lance huffed, “ I'll prove you both wrong! I will defeat Keith Kogane and show you all!”

August 11th, 2024

Lance was not stalking Keith Kogane. He was simply going to the same exact places as Keith was at the same time. Stalking was different. Even if it looked stalkerish, it definitely wasn't stalking.

Lance trailed slightly behind Keith on his morning jog through the Olympic village. He glared harshly at the greasy mullet in front of him, so hard in fact that he didn't notice that the owner of the mullet had stopped until he ran into him sending them both into the ground.

“What the hell is your problem!” Lance sneered at Keith, who was now standing above him with a scowl on his face, as he pushed himself off the ground.

“I should be asking you that! You're the one who was following me,” Keith said holding out his hand to help Lance up. Lance swatted it away and stood up on his own. “What the fuck is wrong with you I was just trying to help you up!” Keith shrieked.

“I don't need your help I'm just fine on my own Keith.” Lance replied petulantly. He stared at Keith noticing that he was much cuter in person than in photos. He was slightly shorter than Lance with handsome features, beautiful dark blue-gray eyes, and a cute nose peppered with tiny freckles. Lance could definitely see why people thought he was cute, still not as cute as himself, but pretty cute nonetheless. 

“Why do you even know my name? Who even are you!”

“I'm Lance McClain,” he was met with a blank stare, “The best swimmer on the US men's swim team!” Keith blinked before recognition lit up his eyes.

“You're the one who lost to Canada twice in the last summer Olympics!” Lance changed his mind Keith was an an absolute dick, definitely not cute at all.

“You know what fuck you, Kogane! Fuck you and your beautiful face, you asshole!” With that, Lance speed walked away an angry blush lighting up his cheeks. 

Keith frowned. He couldn't tell if he had been insulted or complemented. He shrugged before shouting, “good luck on your qualifiers tonight!” To which Lance replied with two middle fingers and a ‘fuck you’.

•••  
“So then that asshole acted like he had no idea who I was before saying “oh yeah you're that loser who got beat by Canada twice in your first Olympics” can you believe that! What a smug bastard and he had the nerve to tell me all sarcastically, “good luck on the qualifiers tonight.” As if I'll need it! That pinche pendejo puede chupa mi culo! Espero que él se ahogue en mierda y muere. Me cago en él y su antepasados y toda su descendencias y toda su país. Actually, maybe not the whole thing, Canada is a pretty nice place, but the sentiment still stands!”

“Lance I am almost 99% sure that is not how that situation went down. I'm pretty sure he meant it when he said good luck. Keith is probably a really nice guy, why don't you just give him a chance?” Hunk said patting his upset buddy on the back.

“Keith Kogane is not a nice guy, Hunk! No one that talented and beautiful can be nice!”

“I thought you said you're better looking and more talented than Keith, and you're pretty nice when you aren't obsessing over your self proclaimed rival.”

“I'm the exception, Hunk,” Lance said, “And I'm not obsessed!”

“Whatever you say, man. But I still think you should get to know Keith before you judge him. Not many people ever do that because they're either scared of him or think he's stuck up. I think he looks pretty lonely sometimes.” With that guilt inducing suggestion Hunk stood up, “I gotta go practice, Lance, you should think about what I said. Good luck tonight!”

Lance watched his friend leave before groaning. Hunk always knew exactly what to say to make Lance feel like a huge douchebag. He had been acting like Keith was a huge asshole who did everything just to spite him, without ever realizing that Keith was just another human being. He decided he had to stop being petty and apologize to Keith. It was the right thing to do as much as it pained his ego to even think about. The problem was he had no idea how. There was no way in hell he could do it to Keith's face he'd probably get halfway through before calling him an ass and running away. It wasn't even like he could text him. He didn't even have his number. Finally he settled on the best option. He would follow Keith on Twitter and then DM him an apology.

Lance pulled out his phone and opened the Twitter app. It wasn't hard to find Keith's Twitter since Lance had looked at his page the day before. Lance clicked the follow button and closed his phone. Now all he needed to do was wait for Keith to follow him back and then apologize in his DMs.

•••

Lance waited and waited and waited some more.  
By the time he was preparing for his first race, Keith still hadn't followed him back. 

It would've been fine with Lance if Keith had been completely inactive, but he had seen him retweeting stuff on his feed. There was only one explanation. Keith was ignoring him out of spite!

“That asshole! I can't believe I was going to apologize to his dumb ass!” Lance complained to Pidge. “I knew Hunk was wrong about him! He's evil, Pidge, evil!”

“Huh,” Pidge said pulling out an earbud, “ were you talking to me?” 

Lance stared at the small brunette incredulously, “you weren't even listening!” Pidge didn't reply, they had already put their earbuds back in. 

•••

Lance was fired up as he stretched next to his driving block, “I'll show that Keith. He thinks he can ignore me. Well he can't ignore me when I win more golds than he can even think of!” He muttered before stepping on the block. His lane neighbor stared at him with concern in his eyes. “What are you looking at!” Lance barked. He pulled his goggles over his eyes and got in the ready position. His blood pumped fiercely through his veins as the ready signal was given. He felt his heart beat out of his chest for what felt like an eternity until, finally, the signal to start was given, and he dove in.

Lance usually felt relaxed in the water; it usually felt like home. That day, however, Lance felt nothing but anger fueling him. He swam in the water at high speeds, his fingers slicing through it easily. He propelled himself forward feeling every one of his competitors fall behind him within seconds. Lance powered through reaching the wall and flipping to complete his second lap. He powered through the last stretch and saw the wall steadily approaching. He gave all the energy he had left and reached to touch the wall finishing his 200 meter freestyle. He looked around finally noticing the screams of the crowd he looked up at the scoreboard and read it. He was in first at 1:02.86 seconds. Lance had just created a new world record.

Lance shouted out in excitement. It took nearly 10 seconds for the second place swimmer to reach the wall and a little after him came third and everyone else. He got out of the water in a daze hearing the congratulatory remarks but not really recognizing them. Lance almost felt numb, as if the whole situation was a strangely vivid dream. He relayed that sentiment to a reporter from nbc who laughed and congratulated him on his record breaking swim. 

Lance finally snapped out of his trancelike state when he was engulfed in a huge group hug by his teammates. He laughed at their enthusiasm and pride. They were already celebrating as if he won gold. They let him go, patting him on the back and offering congratulations, and soon only Pidge was left standing next to him.

“Congrats, dude, I've never seen you swim that fast before! What's got you all fired up?” 

Lance scowled at his small friend, “you would know if you had payed attention earlier, I was irritated because that asshole Keith didn't follow me back when all I was trying to do was apologize.”

“Oh then why don't you apologize right now?” Pidge said nonchalantly, “He's here you know.”

“What! He's here right now?”

“That's what I just said, Lance, keep up,” Pidge teased, “you should hurry if you want to talk to him before your next race. You only have like 25 minutes max.”

“As if I want to talk to Kogane,” Lance said, “I have nothing to say to him.”

“Make that 24 minutes,” Pidge added looking at their watch. At that Lance speed walked towards the door.

“I'm going to uh, use the bathroom real quick. Definitely not going to find Keith, just using the can.”

“Okay well he was sitting in near the Canadian coach not that you’d care.” Pidge giggled as Lance turned around sharply and walked past them with a blush on his face.

“I forgot something by the pool, totally unrelated to Keith. I'll see you later.” 

Lance sped over to the area near the Canadian coaches looking for the telltale black mullet belonging to his rival. He spotted him and tried to get his attention to no avail. Lance grumbled as he awkwardly walked directly to the coaches area and called Keith's name. Keith stared at him questioningly. Lance smiled awkwardly, “Can I talk to you quickly,” he quickly added, “in private.”

Keith looked at him blankly for a few seconds before hesitantly nodding yes.

Lance held out a hand and helped Keith out from the stands. He led him to the holding room praying that there weren't many people there to witness him apologizing. Thankfully, luck was on his side as there were only a few athletes lingering in the room. He stood there gathering the courage to say sorry before blurting out, “thanks for your help with winning the race.” 

Keith blinked twice, “uh you're welcome? I think?” Lance squirmed nervously which in turn made Keith equally as nervous, “I'm confused, how exactly did I help you win?” 

Lance frowned trying to figure out how exactly to explain it, “well you motivated me to push myself harder since I lost to your country twice last time I wanted to prove myself to you.” Lance blushed realizing his statement sounded an awful lot like a confession.

“Oh,” Keith whispered his cheeks glowing red. Once again Lance was struck by Keith's cuteness. He was so cute he was almost beautiful. Key word ‘almost’. 

Silence descended upon the two men. Neither knew what exactly to say in the situation so they just stood there. Awkwardly. Lance scratched his nose and let out a small cough. “Um I have to go back I have another race soon.”

“Oh ok, good luck, I'll be cheering for you!” With that Keith smiled and walked away, blushing all the way to his ears. Lance smiled at the door watching as Keith walked away. He covered his red face and grinned into his hands

“He's cheering for me!” 

That night, in his 100m breaststroke Lance got first again. And it felt better than winning gold.


	2. Is not Gold

August 12th, 2024

Lance woke up and felt like he was walking on air. He walked to the bathroom humming a song and dancing around like an idiot with a huge grin on his face. He sang and danced his way to the small shower and continued to sing loudly throughout his shower. He finished washing up and stepped out of the shower only to realize that Hunk had been standing in the doorway the whole time. Lance shrieked and grabbed his towel, quickly wrapping it around his waist. “Hunk what are you doing in here!”

“It's five o'clock in the morning, Lance, you never wake up this early unless you have a morning practice.”

“So? I wanted to wake up early to go to the gym!”

Hunk looked at Lance with a knowing smirk, “so is that why you were also dancing around and singing Walking on Sunshine and Wannabe?”

Lance began to sweat as he walked out of the bathroom avoiding Hunk’s eyes, “I was just in a really good mood because of last night's races.” It wasn't exactly a lie, but it wasn't completely true either. 

Hunk frowned at Lance, “I don't get why you're lying to me. You and I both know you only act this happy when you have a crush or when you actually manage to get a cute person to go on a date with you.”

Lance chuckled nervously while shuffling through his drawers for something to wear. “I have no idea what you're talking about,” he said, another lie he knew exactly what Hunk was talking about he just didn't want to admit it.

“Oh,” Hunk said, “ I guess Pidge was lying when they said you had a crush on Keith my bad.”

Lance was sweating bullets at that point he tried to laugh as casually as possible, but it came out sounding more like a choking cat. He grimaced at his own reaction. He tried to make it more convincing by turning around with a smile. “Yup, Pidge was just messing with you. I don't have a crush on that mulleted nerd.” Lance realized after the fact how affectionate that sounded.

“Oh well, I suppose I'll just have to throw away Keith's number I thought you would like to have it, but I guess not.”

“Wait no give it to me!” Lance jumped on Hunk snatching the number out of his hands. He unfurled the paper and pulled out his phone, putting the number in his contacts as mullet man with a heart.

He looked up to see Hunk staring at him with a smile. He stuck his tongue out at him petulantly. Hunk only chuckled and said, “you also might want to check your Twitter because after you held hands and talked with Keith last night, people started rumors that you two are actually dating.”

Lance frowned at him, “I may be gullible, but I'm not dumb enough to believe that.” Hunk shrugged and walked to the door.

“You don't have to believe me, but it's true. I'm going to McDonald's to pick up some breakfast text me if you want anything.”

“I'm pretty sure McDonald's isn't on your meal plan, Hunk,” Lance teased, “Your coach will kill you if he finds out.”

“He'll just have to be mad.” With that Hunk walked out the door.

Lance sighed and sat on his bed pulling out his phone again. He hovered over Keith's contact debating whether or not it was creepy to text him out of nowhere. He decided it was a little weird and opened up Twitter instead. As soon as he hit the app his phone was bombarded with notifications causing the app to crash. “What the hell!” He went to his settings and turned off the notifications for Twitter before he opened the app again and freezed. Apparently Hunk wasn't lying. Some photographer had gotten shots of him talking to Keith and grabbing his hand. Lance couldn't lie it did look a lot like he was holding hands with Keith. Apparently even though he broke a world record the same day, Twitter was more interested in the fact that their otp might be real. He sighed and opened the moments tab to see how far the gossip had reached, and just as he feared, the fact that he might be in a relationship with the “enemy” was one of the moments of the day. Lance rolled his eyes and went to his feed. His mood was improved slightly when he notice Keith had tagged him in a tweet congratulating him on his win. He felt even better when he checked Keith's twitter and noticed that he was following him. 

Lance opened up his DMs and sent Keith a simple hello. Instead of sending a normal message Keith sent ‘do you know what an otp is??? and why are people telling me that we are theirs????’. Lance frowned before sending Keith another message. ‘an otp is a couple that people really like together’ he explained in the simplest terms he could. Keith typed for awhile and then stopped before sending, ‘but we aren't a couple???’ Lance tried to ignore the pang of hurt that came with that statement and sent ‘not yet at least ;)))’. He got nervous when Keith started typing for a long time so he quickly added, ‘jk lol’. Keith stopped typing and then sent, ‘maybe we should meet up to discus this.’ Lance frowned and sent a time and location before clicking his power button. 

Keith had a strange reaction to Lance’s messages. It would really suck if Keith was homophobic. Lance was almost one hundred percent sure that someone had told him Keith had an American boyfriend a few years ago, but maybe it was just another rumor. 

Lance sighed before getting up from his bed and walking out his room to head out and meet Keith. He quickly made his way to the small cafe that was located just outside of the Olympic village and went to the counter to order. He absentmindedly told the barista his order and went to find a seat close to the door. He only waited a few minutes until the barista brought him his drink with a shy smile. He took a sip and stared at the door.

Finally at 7:20 on the dot Keith walked through the door with none other than Takashi Shirogane, the rumored boyfriend from a few years ago. Lance glared at Shiro jealousy flooding through his veins. He smiled bitterly as the two came to his booth and sat down. He knew he had no reason to be jealous. He had just developed a crush on Keith, so he had no right to act like an ass. He squashed down his resentment and stood up to shake Shiro’s hand. 

“You must be Lance. Congratulations on breaking the world record yesterday. Keith wouldn't stop talking about it,” Shiro grinned and ruffled Keith's hair like one would do to their younger sibling. Lance felt his jealousy fading.

Keith glared at Shiro and then turned his attention to Lance, “I brought Shiro with me because two years ago there were rumors that we were dating so I thought he might be able to help,” he explained.

Lance nodded in understanding before the reality of what Keith had said sunk in. Shiro and Keith had never dated. He tried to conceal his happiness by asking a question, “so how do you think we should deal with this situation?” Keith frowned.

“Well I there’s only three things you two could really do,” Shiro said holding up three fingers, “you could ignore the rumors and hope they fade, you can directly address the rumors to the media, or you could just tell people that you are dating and hope the hype goes away.”

Lance laughed at Shiro's final suggestion only to realize he wasn't joking, “wait so what did you two do?”

Keith sighed, “That situation was different, Shiro is practically my brother so we just told the media that we were related.” He stared at Lance and frowned, “What do you think our best option is?” The problem was Lance honestly did not know.

He began weighing the pros and cons in his hand. He and Keith could ignore the rumors, but that meant they would also have to avoid each other and that wasn't a guaranteed solution. The second option could work, maybe they could just deny the rumors on Twitter and if they continued they could call a press conference or something. The latter option honestly seemed a little over dramatic, but Lance doubted that denying it on Twitter would work. The last option was fake dating. Pros: Lance would be able to say he was dating Keith, it would be fake, but the rest of the world wouldn't know that. Plus, he and Keith would have to act like they were dating which didn't sound so bad to Lance. Cons: Lance would have to act like he was dating Keith, and he would definitely catch feelings, plus they would have to do a public ‘breakup’. Lance bit his lip before answering Keith's question with another, “I honestly don't know. What do you think would be best.”

“Honestly, I think we should try to deny it and if that doesn't work, we can pretend to date.” 

Lance frowned, “okay I'll try to deny it in Twitter and we'll see what happens,” he smiled at Keith, “hopefully that'll work and you won't get stuck with me as a boyfriend.”

Keith laughed and teasingly said, “I wouldn't mind as long as you didn't flirt with other people while I was with you.” If only Keith knew how much his words affected Lance. 

Lance forced out a laugh. He finished his tweet and posted it then closed out of Twitter. He smiled at Keith and Shiro and an idea popped into his head. “You two both have iPhones right?” The two nodded, “give me your numbers so I can create a group chat.” Keith and Shiro both rattled off their numbers and Lance added them into a group chat along with Pidge and Hunk before putting Shiro's number into his contacts as ‘volleyball hottie ;)’. He sent out a text and they both added him into their contacts. Lance smiled, “I'll text you if anything happens, but I gotta go.” He stood up and walked out the cafe with a wave.

•••

Three hours later, after swim practice, Lance opened his Twitter to determine if people believed his tweet. He was disappointed to find that most of the replies were people insinuating that he was trying to hide his relationship. He say at least five tweets with the ‘why the fuck you lyin’ vine or gif attached and he frowned. That vine was literally like a decade old yet people were still using it. He screenshotted the replies and sent it in the group chat.

~Sir Lance a lot~  
It didn't work guys no one believed my tweet TT^TT

 

~1000 CP Pidgey~  
What didn't work

And who are these people???

Sir Lance a lot  
It's Shiro and Keith

And we were trying to convince ppl that the rumors that me and Keith are dating are fake

~1000 CP Pidgey~  
Well obviously you aren't dating Keith has standards 

~Hunka burnin love ;*~  
that was rude Pidge

Apologize  
~Sir Lance a lot~  
Yeah Pidge that was r00d

Plus Keith totally loves me

Right Keithy-poo

~mullet man <3~  
No Pidge is right

~Sir Lance a lot~  
You wound me my love

~1000 CP Pidgey~  
Wow I like Keith already

Also hunk stop being such a mom

~Sir Lance a lot~  
You leave my mother alone Pidge!

~volleyball hottie ;)~  
What is going on here?

~Sir Lance a lot~  
Pidge is treating me like trash as usual :((

~volleyball hottie ;)~  
I'm sorry to hear that Lance..

Anyway are you and Keith going to fake date now?

~Sir Lance a lot~  
Idk probability 

*probably

~1000 CP Pidgey~  
probability 

~Hunka burnin love ;*~  
p r o b a b i l i t y

~Sir Lance a lot~  
GUYS STOP IT WAS A TYPO

~mullet man <3~  
PROBABILITY 

~Sir Lance a lot~  
It was a mistake 

1000 CP Pidgey changed the  
chat name to probability 

~Sir Lance a lot~  
Fuck you Pidge 

At least Shiro loves me

~volleyball daddy ;)~  
Probability 

~Sir Lance a lot~  
You guys suck

~1000 CP Pidgey~  
why do u need to fake date Keith anyway

~Sir Lance a lot~  
To get people to stop bothering us about the rumors that we're dating 

~Hunka burnin love ;*~  
So are u gonna fake date

~Sir Lance a lot~  
I already said probably

~1000 CP Pidgey~  
actually u said probability :) 

~Sir Lance a lot~  
Well either way the  
answer is yes

~1000 CP Pidgey~  
poor Keith 

~Sir Lance a lot~  
I'll have you know I'm the best boyfriend

~1000 CP Pidgey~  
sure lance whatever u say

are y'all gonna announce it somewhere 

~Sir Lance a lot~  
Yea I'll just tag Keith in my Twitter and Instagram bios and then tweet that we're actually dating 

~mullet man <3~  
ill probably do the same and just retweet ur tweet 

Lance opened up Twitter and changed his bio to say ‘Olympic swimmer and ex ladies man. love my mullet man @keithkogane1 ♥️’. Seconds later he tweeted ‘yup it's true I'm no longer single’ and Keith retweeted it not long after.

Lance checked Keith's bio which now read ‘Pal dan taekwondo Canadian Olympic team @sir_lance_alot is my boyfriend’. It wasn't the most romantic or beautiful, but it would have to do. He checked his tweet to see that replies were flooding in and decided he would just have to deal with it later.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is shorter but that's because I cut out a bit of it to go with chapter three.  
> Also should I put up chapter three right now???? because it's done already but I'm not finished with chapter four or five yet.


	3. I already know you'll never be mine

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Oh lord here it comes

August 13th 2024

As per usual, Lance dominated in semifinals. He finished in either first or second for all his events. He only had one race left and he figured it was the best time to show off for the media. He got out of the water and spotted Keith immediately. He walked up to him with a huge smirk on his face, “Hey babe, you come here often?”

Keith laughed and it almost felt real in that moment, “You're so cheesy, Lance. Don't you have another race coming up?” Keith was a pretty good actor, but Lance refused to be one-upped.

“Yeah you're right,” Lance pushed a strand of hair behind Keith's ear, then gently caressed Keith's face. He smiled, “I gotta go get ready, but before I leave how ‘bout a good luck kiss, querido.”

Keith leaned in with a smile and Lance closed his eyes expectantly only to feel a quick kiss on his cheek. Lance pouted and Keith only smiled and grabbed his chin before leaning in once again, “How about you win the race and then we'll see,” he whispered with a cheeky grin.

Lance laughed, “I hold to that,” he pecked Keith on the cheek and walked to his team. Keith was definitely a good actor, but if there was one thing Lance couldn't be bested at, it was show biz. 

•••

Lance had an interview with nbc before his last semifinal race. It was pretty common for him to have a few interviews before or after competing, with both media from the US and Canada, and channels from Latin America. The questions were usually similar for any interview, some variation of how do you think you did/ will do today (the answer was almost always good), a question about his training schedule and how he felt (his schedule was always rigorous and how he felt changed often), and then of course the ever popular relationship questions came next. The reporter had rattled off all the sports related questions she finally asked the one he was expecting, “So Lance, are there any lucky ladies or gentlemen in your life?”

“There is one person,” he said smiling into the camera, “that person is my boyfriend Keith.”

“Ah, is he waiting for you back home?” The reporter smiled.

“No actually he's here today watching me,” as if he was anticipating the reporter's next question he continued, “he's also an Olympic athlete on the Canadian taekwondo team.” The reporter smiled.

“Well congrats on your relationship and good luck on the semifinals. Any final words?”

“Yes,” Lance grinned, “I want to say to my family and to Keith, I love you very much and I'm gonna win gold for you!”

•••

Instead of a kiss, Lance was greeted with a slap on the back of the head. “Ow what the hell was that for?”

“That's for saying you loved me on national tv, you idiot.” Keith snarled.

“Wow, baby, I didn't know you liked it rough,” Lance said making kissy faces at Keith who flipped him off, “well I'm going to get dressed and then we can leave to meet up with Shiro, Pidge, and Hunk. We can deal with damage control later.” Lance quickly dried off his freshly conditioned hair and threw on a pair of ripped jeans a tshirt and a flannel. He walked out and stared at Keith incredulously. “What the heck are you wearing.”

Keith looked down at his faded red flannel pyjama pants and stained white tee. Then he had the nerve to look at Lance in confusion, “Uh what's wrong with it.”

“You literally look like you just rolled out of bed. You're lucky it's me you're stuck fake dating,” he threw Keith an oversized white tee, his jacket, and some black skinny jeans. “They might be a little big on you but you can just roll up the pant legs a bit.” Keith walked away grumbling under his breath.

Lance waited patiently until Keith walked out in his outfit and his jaw dropped. Keith was hot. Like super hot. Keith's hair was pulled into a ponytail his bangs and a few loose strands of hair framing his face perfectly. The white shirt was large on him hanging off his shoulders and displaying his creamy skin. The jeans, which Lance thought would be too baggy, were slightly tight on his muscular legs and he rolled them up twice to prevent them from being too long. He had wrapped Lance’s jacket around his waist and tied it in the front. Lance was snapped out of his sinful thoughts by the sound of Keith's voice.

“What's wrong? Does it look bad?” He asked almost self consciously.

“No you look really nice,” Lance said with a smile. Nice was an understatement Keith looked amazing. He looked at his phone and realized they were running late, “we should leave.”

He held out his hand and Keith slapped it awkwardly. “I was trying to hold your hand, not give you a high five.”

“Oh,” Keith said with a sheepish grin. He gently intertwined his fingers with Lance, blushing like a tomato. Lance marveled at how well their hands seemed to fit together, fingers overlapping perfectly. Keith's hands were oddly smooth for a professional fighter, his fingers slender, and skin slightly bruised at the knuckles. Lance, on the other hand, had hands that were fairly weathered, they were soft, but not as smooth as Keith's, his nails were short, and his fingers long. Their skin contrasted against each other's, Lance’s tan and freckled, Keith's pale without blemishes. He rubbed his thumb against the back of Keith's hand absentmindedly as they walked. He noticed what he was doing and stopped, his face flushing.

“I'm sorry I didn't realize I was doing that.”

“It's okay I didn't mind,” Keith practically whispered. Lance felt a grin spread across his face as he continued rubbing his thumb against Keith's hand.

The two finally reached the bar that they were meeting everyone at only to realize everyone was already there. The same time they realized it, everyone else seemed to realize that they had finally arrived. “Hey lovebirds you're finally here!” Pidge slurred out. 

“Oh my god who gave Pidge alcohol. You're lucky they aren't diving tomorrow or I'd be hella pissed,” Lance said disapprovingly.

“Aw I didn't realize you were dating Lance, Keith! You two are sooooo cute together,” Lance finally noticed Allura sitting right next to Shiro and leaning on him with a knowing smile. Poor Pidge, both of their crushes in the same place, acting all lovey-dovey.

Keith smiled gently at Allura, “we aren't actually dating, and how much did you even have to drink? You're not usually a lightweight.”

Allura grinned, “you caught me again, you're too perceptive for your own good!” She shot Lance a wink, “it's too bad you too aren't dating, you really would be a cute couple.”

Lance and Keith sat down at the booth across from each other and avoided eye contact with twin blushes. 

Hunk broke the awkward silence with a question, “did either of you see all the hype about Lance and Keith's ‘budding romance’? Apparently you two are being debated over. Some people think you are LGBT icons while others think y'all are betraying your countries.”

Lance and Keith sighed in unison, “that's just stupid,” they both huffed. Everyone at the table stared at them with mixed expressions, Allura with a knowing smirk, Pidge with disgust, Hunk with amusement, and Shiro with a mix all four. “What?” The two asked.

“Quit that it's weird,” Pidge said with a shudder.

“You're weird,” Lance stuck his tongue out at Pidge who sighed in relief. 

Lance pulled out his phone to check out the stories Hunk was talking about. He grinned triumphantly when he came across an article talking about the ‘hottest celeb couple ’. He held his phone out to Keith with a grin, “guess who is the hottest couple right now, babe?”

“Us I guess,” Keith shrugged.

“Damn right we are,” Lance turned to the rest of the table. “Move over Kimye and Jayoncé, klance has taken over!” The rest of the table stared at Lance as if he had sprouted a second head. “What?” He said.

“You just called Keith babe,” Shiro said.

“And he didn't even punch you or anything!” Allura finished. Shiro laughed at her excitement and kissed her on the cheek.

“We get it their relationship is a Christmas miracle. Whoopee,” Pidge said bitterly.

“Woah what crawled up your ass and died?” Lance teased. He was startled when Pidge looked at him with tears in their eyes, “Woah bud are you okay?”

“I'm fine.” Pidge was clearly not fine. They stood up and whispered that they had to go to the bathroom before stumbling away. 

“I'll go after them,” Lance said, but he was stopped by Hunk.

“Maybe Shiro or Allura should go,” he said pointedly. Lance stared at him in confusion and Hunk stared exasperatedly.

“Ohh,” Lance finally understood, “yeah maybe Allura or Shiro should go, I'll just upset them more.”

“I'll go,” Allura said kissing Shiro on the cheek, “I'll be right back.”

Keith stared at Lance questioningly before pointing at his phone and miming texting. Lance pulled out his phone.

~mullet man <3~  
What was that all about??

~Sir Lance a lot~  
It's a long story :/

Also idk if Pidge would want me to tell u

No offense

~mullet man <3~  
None taken

Plus I'm pretty sure I already figured it out 

Also what is this “:/”

~Sir Lance a lot~  
It's a face like a   
shrugging face or smth

~mullet man <3~  
Ohhhh...

I still don't get it 

Lance laughed. For someone who looked like a stick in the mud who could kill someone with his pinky, Keith was pretty adorable. He looked up and realized Shiro and Hunk were staring at him suspiciously. Keith looked like he wanted to strangle him.

“What are you laughing at?” Shiro asked with a small frown.

“Keith was telling me jokes,” Lance blurted out. He looked at Keith for help to no avail. 

“Now I know you're lying. Keith sucks at telling jokes.” Keith scowled in offense. 

“Ok you got me, I was laughing because Keith doesn't know how emoticons work in the year of our lord 2024, and I find that super adorable.” 

Keith scoffed, “you don't have to act like we’re an actual couple. There's no one from the media around.I know that you're just acting and so does the rest of the table. I mean we barely even like each other.” 

Lance was hurt. Keith looked at him blankly like he really didn't care at all, and maybe he didn't. Lance felt stupid for genuinely believing he and Keith were friends. Lance felt like he had been slapped, but he hid it with a grin and an underhanded jab, “you're right, Kogane, I forgot I don't have to pretend to like you around Shiro and Hunk. They already know we're not even friends.” He stood up and stretched. “I'm gonna head back to the room, Hunk. I have practice at 9 in the morning so I need my beauty rest.” With that he left with a false swagger in his steps and a plastic smile on his face.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Get ready for the A N G S T Z O N E :)  
> Also I might not update tomorrow but idk yet I haven't finished chapter 5 so I'll probably be working on that


	4. There's a reason why I've stopped trying

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Here comes the slight angst :))))

August 14th 2024

Lance was hella petty. He was too attached to ignore Keith's texts completely so instead he settled on leaving him on read. Unfortunately, that backfired on him because it distracted the hell out of him during morning practice. He spent half the time thinking about stupid fucking Keith.

“Lance, what is going on with you? Are you coming down with a cold or something?” Coran bombarded Lance with questions feeling his forehead for a fever.

“I'm fine, Coran. I was just out late yesterday night,” Lance lied.

“Are you sure, Lance? Tonight is the 200m freestyle finals and the 4x100m relay! We can't afford you getting sick right before these races.” Coran gave Lance a worried look.

“I'm just a little tired Coran, scouts honor,” he gave Coran a convincing scout salute.

Coran twirled his mustache thoughtfully while giving Lance a scrutinizing look. “Fine if you insist you're just tired, you can head to your room and take a nap. However, if you come back later and you're sick, I will have no choice but to whip up my signature cure-all!” Lance grimaced at the thought. Coran’s cure-all would serve better as a last minute sabotage than an actual remedy to any sicknesses. 

Lance quickly gathered his stuff and hurried to the showers to rinse off and go home. The whole time his thoughts were on Keith. The guy had been texting him almost every twenty minutes. At first the texts had been simple things like ‘hey’ or ‘why aren't you answering my texts’. Then they became confrontational, calling Lance an asshole and various other insults. Keith even had the nerve to say Lance was being a dick for no reason. Eventually they pittered off to become sad and desperate ‘I'm sorry’, ‘please talk to me’, ‘i didn't mean to hurt you’ messages. That truly made Lance’s blood boil. How dare he act hurt as if Lance was in the wrong.

Another text came in causing Lance to let out a frustrated huff. He opened messenger only to realize it was Pidge, not Keith and his attitude softened.

~1000 CP Pidgey~  
Where'd you go I came out of the water and you were gone??

~Sir Lance a lot~  
I'm in my room  
I was tired at practice so Coran let me go early

~1000 CP Pidgey~  
cut the bull Lance you aren't tired you're upset about Keith

~Sir Lance a lot~  
How'd you know you were still in the “bathroom”

~1000 CP Pidgey~  
Hunk told me  
and Keith came by to look for you at practice 

~Sir Lance a lot~  
So

~1000 CP Pidgey~  
-_-  
You obviously like him and you obviously care so quit playing games

~Sir Lance a lot~  
I'm tired Pidge can we just talk later

 

1000 CP Pidgey is calling

Lance hesitantly answered the phone, “what Pidge?”

Pidge wasted no time at getting straight to the point, “you need to just tell him how you feel.”

Lance scoffed, “As if you can talk. You still haven't told Shiro and Allura, even though you made it pretty obvious yesterday.”

Pidge sighed on the other end, “Don't change the subject,” Lance could here them walking around, “and for your information I did tell them yesterday.”

“That doesn't count! They were both drunk,” Lance protested. 

“My point is if I can do it then surely you can you loudmouth.”

“I can, but I won't,” Lance said childishly. Pidge chuckled darkly and Lance felt shivers run up his spine. “What did you do?”

As soon as he spoke he heard a knock against his door. “Lance open up! It's me,” a familiar voice called.

“Fuck! Pidge what the hell!” Lance hissed into his phone, “why is Keith at my door?”

“I told him where you went,” Pidge said innocently, “now you have no choice but to talk to him,” with that the evil mastermind hung up.

Lance considered his options. The door was the only exit besides the window, and Lance was on the tenth floor. Another frantic bunch of knocks rang out and Keith called out, “Lance I know you're in there open the door.” Lance looked longingly to the window before walking over and opening the door.

“Hello, Keith,” he said with a smile that didn't reach his eyes, “we need to talk.”

•••

Keith and Lance stared at each other and silence blanketed the room in a tense aura. Keith stared at Lance with an indecipherable look on his face; Lance met his eyes with a cold blank stare. It was odd for Lance to be so closed off. His emotions were usually an ocean, too strong to be held back, open and free flowing. When he was angry or hurt he became a hurricane, but that day he was like a still ocean right before a crippling storm. Finally Lance shattered the silence, his voice too soft, too controlled.

“If you are here to apologize you might as well leave,” he looked away from Keith, “it's obvious you have no clue what you're apologizing for.”

A part of Keith wanted to leave. He knew Lance was right, he had no clue why exactly Lance was so upset. He knew it had something to do with what he had said the night before but he had no idea what. So part of Keith desperately wanted to leave, but every part of him knew he shouldn't. So instead of apologizing he told the truth, “you're right, Lance, I don't know exactly what I'm apologizing for, so I'm not going to say sorry.” Lance looked disappointed and relieved at the same time, but he made no move to speak. “I'm not saying sorry yet, not until you tell me what I did wrong,” Keith finished and immediately after silence shrouded the room again. 

“You didn't do anything wrong, you were completely honest.” Lance didn't sound like he meant the first half of his statement. “I just overreacted.” His words sounded shallow even to his own ears.

“Please, Lance,” Keith tried to get Lance to look him in the eye, “I didn't mean to hurt you.” Lance let out a bitter laugh, and a piece of Keith's heart broke for him.

“You really want to know why I'm hurt, Keith?” Keith wasn't sure he knew the answer anymore. He nodded anyway. “Well you might as well get comfy because it's one hell of a story.”

•••

Lance's first and last love had seemed way out of his league. He should've known she was too good to be true. Then again hindsight was twenty twenty, and as a teen he was starved for attention so he got it where he could even if it wasn't the right places.

Lance grew up in a large family so affection was somehow abundant, and lacking at the same time. His family loved him and he knew that, but sometimes it was hard to tell whether they loved him because he was him or whether they loved him because they had to. The problem with large close knit families was that each individual member eventually just faded into the background. Each person became a simple cog in a well oiled machine. At first Lance thought that only outsiders believed each McClain was one and the same, then he slowly began to realize that his family believed that too. As a result, love felt synonymous to necessity and Lance had trouble separating the two.

The first person to tell Lance he was different was a senior named Nyma. Lance had just entered his sophomore year when his older brother introduced him to her at a house party. Introduced was a generous word for the situation. His brother had left Lance alone to go socialize and told him to just sit next to his friend Nyma, so Lance did exactly that. Lance was utterly terrified, but he introduced himself to Nyma as Jonathan's brother, Lance, with a shy smile.

It was then that Nyma told Lance he wasn't much like any of his siblings. At first he was offended. He asked her what the hell that was supposed to mean and she laughed. 

“I don't mean it like that, I mean it in a good way. The rest of the McClains are so parallel. They move the same way like they're carbon copies or something. You're different.” She had smiled at him like he was a puzzle. He smiled back because she made him feel noticeable for once.

From that moment he swore he was in love. Nyma had numerous admirers who would come and go, yet she kept Lance around as her constant companion. He would've followed her to the end of the earth, and she realized this fact. So, she told him that she needed him. She said he grounded her. Kept her sane. She made him feel needed, so he did whatever she wanted, and at first she wanted nothing. He was just her friend. She would talk to him about her problems and he would help her solve them. She did the same. That went on for awhile until she met Rolo.

For a guy named after candy he was anything, but sweet. Rolo was a manipulative bastard whose favorite pastime was taking advantage of others. He made Nyma do his bidding, anything from stealing trinkets from stores to getting answer sheets to help him cheat on exams, and when Lance told her he was no good, Rolo told her to get rid of him. For almost a year they didn't speak at all. Nyma stopped showing up in school and started creating trouble on the streets. She wouldn't answer his calls or texts and blocked him on all social media. Still, Lance loved her, she had made him feel needed, so even when she no longer acted like he existed, he insisted she was still a good person. 

Ten months later Lance was a junior with plenty of swimming scouts and a bright future ahead of him. Ten months later Nyma came running back to him.

She told him Rolo had used her, that he was right all along, she told him she was sorry, and then she told him she loved him. She played him like a fiddle. She took his virginity, and then asked him to do a favor for her. Of course he stupidly agreed. He drove her to the shady side of town. She told him they were going to pick up a friend of hers who needed her help. Technically she didn't lie. The friend turned out to be Rolo. The two had overpowered him and cuffed him to a light pole before stealing his car. 

He had asked her why she did it and she looked at him with pity before saying gently, “it's sad that you thought we were actually a couple. I was just acting, Lance. We both know I never really liked you, you were just too naive to see it.”

Lance had gotten rescued by police an hour later, but rescued really wasn't the right word. The police had arrested him and detained him for questioning. Apparently Nyma did a lot more than just sell stolen shit. She was also involved in drug dealing, human trafficking and other bad shit. The police didn't believe him when he said he had no idea so the incident went on his permanent record, and the numerous colleges who had offered him scholarships? Most of them dropped him within weeks of hearing about his run in with the law. the ones who didn't dropped the value of his scholarships making it too expensive for his family to afford with three other kids to send to college and two already in it. Scouts stopped showing up, and the only college he had really wanted to go to, Garrison University had denied him because of his arrest. Lance had barely managed to salvage his future. He had to work twice as hard in school and in his sport just to be able to afford it. Nyma had fucked him over, badly. So he had refused to get into serious relationships and stopped trusting almost everyone who called him their friend in fear of getting hurt again.


	5. Something like affection but stronger

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Haha gay shit happening here guys.

Lance told Keith how Nyma had ruined his life and stared at him with a slight smile once he was done, but there was no mirth in his grin only a mix of bitterness and sadness. Keith seemed to have no idea whatsoever what to say, so Lance saved him the trouble. “I overreacted I'm sorry. I know you’re not Nyma, but when you said you were just acting and you barely even like me it just reminded me of that moment and how worthless I felt, but you didn't know that and it was wrong of me to treat you like that.”

Keith frowned before moving to sit next to Lance on his bed. “No, I’m sorry it was a terrible thing for me to say in the first place. I lied anyway.”

Lance looked at Keith in confusion, “What do you mean?”

“I mean when I said I barely liked you, I was lying. I just met you and I already consider you to be one of my friends, and I don't make friends easily so I didn't want to get my hopes up. I was trying to push you away and that wasn't fair to you at all. I’m really sorry Lance.” Keith gave Lance an apologetic look. “I’ll leave if you still want me too. And for the record, Nyma never deserved you.” He went to stand up and a hand on his wrist stopped him.

Lance looked at Keith with tears welling in his eyes, “Thank you Keith, tienes un corazón muy grande.” He wiped at his eyes and gave Keith a watery smile. Keith got the sudden urge to hug him, so he did. 

It was like a dam burst; Lance started crying and could not stop. The culmination of his budding feelings for Keith, the reliving of his past, and the realization that Keith considered him to be a friend and genuinely cared about him caused him to burst into tears. Keith awkwardly hugged him tighter and whispered reassurances in his hair. Lance wondered if Keith could feel his heart beating out of his chest. Lance chuckled wetly at Keith’s valiant yet pathetic attempt to comfort him. “Do you even know what I said.”

“Um, no I took french not spanish, and I failed it horribly.”

Lance smiled into Keith’s neck, “Well then. Me mentí. Nunca estaba actuando. Realmente quiero salir contigo. Creo que estoy cayendo en amor de ti,” he said harshly.

“What does that mean?” 

Lance looked up at Keith with a small blush spreading across his cheeks and a glare in his eyes. “It means if you ever do something like that again because you think we aren't friends, I'll kick your ass,” he lied. 

Keith snorted, “As If you could ever.” Lance gave him an offended look and slapped him across his arm.

“I totally could beat your ass,” Lance protested. Keith only laughed harder even when Lance started hitting him. “Stop laughing you jackass.” Keith hugged his sides and laughed so hard his eyes started watering. Lance couldn't help but to giggle. Maybe he could be content to be friends with Keith after all.

•••  
Lance stretched in front of the block feeling extremely nervous. The 4x100 relay was never his best race. He always had an ominous that he would let his team down before relays, for that reason he would rather depend on himself than have to swim as a team. Lance felt a soft pat on his back, He looked down to see Pidge looking at him with a proud smile.  
“You got this Lance, I know you can do it. You've been practicing for years.” Pidge smiled mischievously, “Plus your boyfriend is here watching, it would be pretty embarrassing if you lost…”

“He’s not my boyfriend, Pidge. I don't even like him like that.” Pidge looked at Lance like they wanted to strangle him. Lance frowned, “I'm serious. You know I get attached easily. I'm probably just infatuated with Keith.” He neglected to mention the fact that he had said just hours earlier that he was falling for Keith. That was a minor detail of little to no importance. Denial was becoming his default state at that point and he was completely okay with that. He wasn't exactly lying when he said he was just infatuated with Keith either. Part of him was sure that that was true, he didn't exactly have a good track record with distinguishing between feelings of love and slight obsession. The whole Nyma incident served as proof to that conclusion. Still, a larger part of Lance realized that the beating pulse, sweaty palms and affectionate aggravation had never been an issue around Nyma, and that realization scared Lance more than any relay race ever could.

Lance shook thoughts of Keith from his head and tried to focus on the task ahead of him, winning gold in the relay. He stretched his long limbs and breathed in deeply. He heard the telltale beep of the start signal and watched as Johann Wegman flew into the water gracefully. He sighed in anticipation feeling the jittery rush of adrenaline flow through him. He was the last swimmer for the team, the one who would make or break the United States. He frowned as the third swimmer, Steven Rice dove into the water and he quickly stepped up to take his place. He prepared himself on the block as Rice approached him, then finally, after what seemed like eons of waiting, Lance shot into the water like a bullet from a loaded gun.

The water welcomed Lance as it always did giving little resistance as he flowed through it. He forgot why he had been so nervous. Whether it was a relay or individual race, the water always embraced him as if he belonged to it, and honestly at that point he kinda did. Lance's body propelled him through the the water quickly and just like that he found himself reaching the opposite side of the pool, the rest of his competitors far behind him. He executed and expert turn and swam towards the other side of the pool. His fingers smacked the board and he lifted his head out of the water. The people in the lanes on either side of him were still approaching. He looked to the further lanes and saw the same thing. He was the only one finished. He had finished first solidifying his team as the gold medalists for the 4x100 relay.

•••  
The award ceremony passed by in a blur. Lance couldn't help but grin as the national anthem played. He had won his second gold medal. His stupid grin didn't fall off his face even as he went to prepare for the 200m freestyle.

He waved as he stepped back out to the pool noticing Shiro, Allura, and Hunk sitting in the front of the crowd. He frowned slightly when he realized Keith was nowhere to be found. Did that mean he hadn't even seen Lance in the 4x100. Lance's mood fell. His albeit fake boyfriend didn't even show up to his race. Lance knew he had nothing else going on since his team in taekwondo practiced in the morning and wasn't even competing yet.

Lance tried to hide his disappointment as he walked towards Coran and sat behind his chipper coach. Of course Coran wasn't easily fooled. 

“What crawled up your metaphorical pants and died, Lance? You should be excited you are pretty likely to win this race as long as you don't slack off!”

Lance smiled, “it's nothing Coran I'm great.” He didn't even put the effort into making a joke. Coran hummed unconvinced and mumbled something about kids these days being moodier that his pet porcupine before a meal. Lance had no idea what that was supposed to mean considering the fact that he had never seen a porcupine before and certainly not before a meal. 

Lance looked down at his phone debating whether or not to text Keith and ask him where he was, but before he could, he felt a tap on his shoulder. He turned around to see Keith staring at him with an unreadable expression on his face. Before he could ask where Keith had been, Keith pulled him in and placed a soft peck on his lips. Lance felt heat blooming all over his face and he was too stunned to form a single word. He heard his teammates hooting around him and he reminded himself to kick their asses later.

“That was for congratulations,” Keith said in explanation, a small blush colored his cheeks and he bit his bottom lip softly as if debating whether to say more. Instead he cupped Lance's face and pulled him into another gentle kiss, this one longer. He pulled away and Lance chased his lips capturing them in one last peck. Keith rested his forehead against Lance's, their faces close enough that Lance could see small flecks of blue in Keith's eyes. Keith let out a nervous laugh, “and that was for good luck,” he finished with a shy smile. Before Lance could say anything in reply Keith was hurrying away and he was being pushed towards his lane by Coran.

“All right lover boy, there's no time for airheadedness, you can kiss your boyfriend again later.”

Lance barely registered Coran’s words, his mind was still stuck on a loop of the three small kisses he had shared with Keith. His lips had been so soft and had felt surprisingly full when locked with his own. Lance wished he could've kissed Keith for longer than those little pecks. His thoughts dissolve into a steady three worded mantra of Keith kissed me, but soon morphed into a steady repetition of Keith's name. Lance couldn't deny it anymore. He definitely felt something for Keith, and he was beginning to fear that that feeling was love.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry for not writing for so long. I got my wisdom teeth taken out, then I got writers block and then school started. The next chapter could take awhile to be posted but let me tell you. I got some gay stuff planned for that.


	6. Final Stage Acceptance

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Is there a confession in sight? Will these two oblivious idiots finally get their shit together?

Lance’s twitter was blowing up. Again. 

Gifs and edits of him and Keith kissing were scattered throughout his mentions and his feed. He was ashamed to say it, but he wasn't even mad about it. In fact he was kinda happy someone had captured the moment on camera. He saved one of the best edits and put it as his homescreen for his phone. (So he's really gay for Keith, sue him!)

Honestly, Lance wouldn't have even believed the kiss between him and Keith was anything but a figment of his super gay imagination if there hadn't been photographic proof of it happening. He felt like it had all been a really vivid dream before he had opened up Twitter. It wouldn't have been the first time he had imagined kissing Keith. He was giddy just thinking about his crush. Sadly his giddiness was dampened by the fact that he was no longer in denial about the fact that he was crushing hard. He was now on the first train to the second stage of grief, anger.

Rationally, Lance knew he had no one to really be angry at, but he could never allow rationality to stop him from being a drama queen. First he got mad at the object of his affections and the reason for his pain: Keith Kogane. If Keith hadn't kissed him Lance would still be happy and content in denial, but no, Keith just had to be stupidly sweet and adorable and kiss him! Sure, it was part of the job description of being fake boyfriends, but he could've given Lance a little warning. A simple, “hey imma kiss you real quick for believability, so don't get all in your feelings, my dude,” would've sufficed. Within a few minutes of seething about Keith's adorableness Lance's anger became directed towards himself. He was the idiot who fell for his fucking rival. What the hell kind of bullshit was that. Normal people didn't just fall for their sworn enemies! Yet, Lance, the fucking sadomasochist, did.

Lance screamed into his pillow like an over dramatic teenage girl in a cheesy 80s romcom. 

As a last resort, Lance began to pray. “Um hey, God, I know we haven't talked in awhile, but I come to you as your loyal son asking, no, begging for you to help me out. Please help me to stop crushing on Keith. Could you just like expose him as a total asshole or a furry or something so I will have a valid reason not to like him? Thanks I love you, amen.” Apparently God didn't appreciate his heartfelt prayer because within seconds Lance received the cutest series texts from Keith. 

~mullet man <3~  
hey hunk said u were in your room so I'm coming over also I'm bringing coffee  
I got u the mocha frappe with caramel drizzle and white mocha chips  
That's what u usually get right????  
Or was it white mocha with caramel and mocha chips????

Lance smiled at his phone. Keith had somehow managed to remember his order even though Lance didn't remember ever telling him it. Keith was a literal angel on earth. Lance quickly sent Keith a text.

~Sir Lance a lot~  
U got it right thanks babe

Seconds later Lance realized his mistake. He had called Keith babe. Over texts. Like they were actually a couple. Which they weren't and would probably never be. It was this realization that sent him into the next stage of grief. Depression.

He frowned at his phone screen noticing that Keith was typing. He wondered if it was too late to say jk, but ultimately decided against it. The blinking ellipses taunted him. He felt anxiety bubbling up. Keith probably thought he was weird now. Who the fuck calls their barely friend babe. Lance didn't even want to know what Keith was typing. He probably knew that Lance had a crush on him now. He was probably trying to figure out how to let Lance down easy. Lance nearly flung his phone across the room when Keith's reply came in. With shaking hands, he read Keith's message.

~mullet man <3~  
Ok that's good

Also do you call all your friends babe or am I special?

Lance let out an embarrassing squeaky sound that sounded just like his dog's favorite toy.

Was Keith flirting with him? Lance channeled all the courage he had and sent Keith a message before he could chicken out of it.

~Sir Lance a lot~  
Only the cute ones ;)

Lance screamed in embarrassment. He couldn't believe he had actually sent that. He honestly wanted to fling himself out the window. What was he thinking? Keith was coming over! If he made it awkward over text he would have to make awkward conversation with Keith alone in his room. Lance wanted to curl up in a ball and die. He settled on hugging his legs to his chest and staring at his wall in despair. He felt his phone buzz with a new notification. He picked it up. He had made his bed and now he would have to lie in it.

~mullet man <3~  
U think I'm cute?

Lance shrieked aloud. Out of all the possible replies Keith just had to chose the one that would reduce Lance to flustered lovesick goo. He had no idea how to reply, so he fell back on his instincts. He wrapped his compliment in a conceited statement.

~Sir Lance a lot~  
Of course you're cute  
Maybe even as cute as me  
ur like a 11 on a scale from 1 to 10

Two minutes passed without a reply from Keith. Lance felt his soul shrivel up and die. He had no idea what Keith was thinking. He should've just left well enough alone. He was convinced he had just ruined his tentative friendship with Keith. Lance worried his bottom lip between his teeth. He put down his phone and almost immediately, it began to vibrate.

~1000 CP Pidgey~  
Um I passed Keith in the hall and he was so red  
What did you do???

~Sir Lance a lot~  
I may have just ruined the dynamic of our relationship  
Nbd

~1000 CP Pidgey~  
Wth???? How???  
Also I seriously doubt your relationship is ruined don't be a drama queen 

~Sir Lance a lot~  
oh u wanna bet  
Here are the screenshots  
[IMAGE SENT]

~1000 CP Pidgey~  
YIKES  
Ok but tbh that's not that bad  
He seemed really flustered maybe he was flattered but didn't know what to say???

~Sir Lance a lot~  
Yea but I totally messed up the fragile relationship we had going on  
I'm a mess  
a big gay mess

~1000 CP Pidgey~  
Lol u better pull urself together  
Keith is probably close to your room now 

Lance paled. He had no idea how to deal with the situation at hand. He was crushing on a guy who probably had no interest in him, he had flirted with said guy and made it awkward, and said guy was heading towards his room. He literally had no idea what to do.

After what felt like an eternity, a knock on the door roused Lance from his feelings of self pity. He walked to the door and pulled it open with a sheepish grin. Keith looked up at him with a small blush painting his cheeks a pretty shade of pink.

“Hey, Lance, here's your coffee,” Keith mumbled handing Lance his frappe. Lance shivered as their fingers brushed together. He wondered if Keith's heart had skipped a beat at the brief contact too. He doubted it.

“Thanks, ba-” Lance stopped himself. Calling Keith babe was what had gotten him in the mess in the first place. “Thanks, Keith,” he turned away before he could notice the disappointment in Keith's eyes.

Lance could already tell that it was going be an awkward encounter.

•••  
“So,” Lance and Keith blurted out at the same time, breaking the awkward silence that had permeated the room.

Lance chuckled awkwardly, “uh you can talk first,”

Keith opened his mouth and then seemed to change his mind. He frowned before saying, “I'm really sorry if I made you uncomfortable by kissing you yesterday.”

Lance smiled weakly. Sometimes Keith's tactlessness seemed endearing, but at that moment it was truly annoying. He had hoped to avoid the subject of the kiss for at least another day or two. “It's okay,” he muttered, “I know it didn't mean anything anyway.”

Keith frowned and said bitingly, “Of course it didn't mean anything.” He seemed to recoil from his own venom and added on, “you obviously don't like me like that anyway.” 

Lance was struck by how sad Keith sounded about the fact. Still, he wasn't going to confess to Keith just because he sounded sad about Lance not liking him. He had done enough stress inducing activities for one day. So he settled on a compromise hoping that on the slim chance that Keith did like him he would catch the hint.

“Yeah, I mean you obviously have no feelings for me and I get that. You're just stuck fake dating me.”

Keith looked down at his hands, “you say that like it's a bad thing. There are worse people to be stuck fake dating.”

Lance smiled, “aw I'm flattered. The feeling is mutual.”

Keith gave him a hesitant smile. Lance's heart skipped a beat. Before he could stop himself he blurted out, “I really want to kiss you right now.” Lance froze. Keith stared at him with his mouth wide open. Lance simply stared in shock.

He did the only thing he could at the moment. He ran away. He made up a bullshit excuse about having a surprise practice and having to leave immediately. With that he ran out the room.

Maybe he would never reach the final stage of grief.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Got y'all hyped for nothing lol  
> Approximately 2 more chapters left get hyped


	7. The End (part 1)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> buckle up buttercups  
> also this chapter is dedicated to SwampDragon for getting me off my lazy ass to write again

August 18th 2024  
Lance hid out in Pidge’s room. Logically, he knew that there were way more practical ways of dealing with his mistakes than avoiding Keith like the plague, but Lance was never really a practical person in the first place, and he wasn't planning on starting being practical any time soon.

 

So he hid. And turned off his phone. And avoided his friends. And went to practice. And hid some more. And wallowed in the pits of anxious despair while Pidge looked on with a mix of pity, disappointment, and annoyance. 

 

It was after his seventh sigh in a span of two minutes that Pidge vocalized their obvious annoyance with a matching sigh. 

 

Lance looked up for a second and then turned his attention back to his blackened phone screen with another sigh. 

 

“You know,” Pidge whispered contemplatively, “he's probably out of your room by now it's literally been like three days.In fact he's probably been out of your room for at least two days so I don't understand why you're still in my room.” They started at Lance pointedly not even veiling their desire for lance to get out of their room.

 

“But, Pidge,” Lance whined petulantly, “I know he's probably not still waiting there, but what if he decides to check the room and see if I'm there. I can't face him after what I said.”

 

Pidge stared at him with an unreadable expression before letting out the longest sigh known to mankind. After knowing them for three years, Lance could easily interpret their different expressions of annoyance and that specific sigh could be roughly translated as, ‘For the love of Jesus Christ and all that is holy, will someone gift this dumbass with some sense before I smack it into him’. 

 

Pidge rubbed their temples and looked to the heavens for strength before saying, “I doubt Keith would spend all his time loitering around looking for you considering the fact that's he's LITERALLY A FUCKING OLYMPIC ATHLETE WHO NEEDS TO TRAIN TOO.”

 

Lance looked at Pidge in shock before realizing the truth within their words. The likelihood of Keith coming by his room to look for him after three days of radio silence was pretty low. Still he really didn't want to take any chances. 

 

“Can you text Hunk and ask him to check if Keith has been to our room recently.” Lance made puppy dog eyes at Pidge and stuck out his lower lip in an exaggerated pout, “pwetty pwease,” he said sweetly.

 

Pidge rolled their eyes, “you have a phone. Why don't you text Hunk and ask him to check?”

 

Lance glared at them, “ you know exactly why I can't do that.”

 

Pidge looked at him blankly their gaze asking him why not.

 

Lance sighed, “if I turn on my phone to text Hunk, I will see any possible texts Keith sent me.” He glared back at Pidge, “now are you going to text him or would you rather I just stay here and annoy you until your next event?”

 

Lance smirked as Pidge pulled out their phone while grumbling under their breath. After a few minutes a notification pinged and they turned to Lance with a forced smile, “Hunk said your room is clear, now get the fuck outta here before I punch you.”

 

Lance laughed and hugged Pidge. Although they acted like a mischievous gremlin most of the time, Lance knew they loved him, and he loved them too. He opened Pidge’s door and turned around and waved at Pidge. “See you on the flip side, gremlin.”

 

With that he closed the door but not before hearing Pidge's indignant squawk.

 

•••

 

Lance changed his mind. He didn't love Pidge he hated that scheming gremlin. He had trusted them and they betrayed him without a second thought.

 

He had just made it to the hall where his room was when Hunk and the gremlin had ambushed him and pushed him in the room. They somehow managed to get the electronic door to lock from the outside, so Lance couldn't get out. He was stuck, and the worst part was, he was not alone.

 

He was locked in a room with Keith mother fucking Kogane, the one person he was trying to avoid at the moment. 

 

For the second time in a week Lance debated flinging himself out of the window.

 

He looked over at Keith who sat on his bed staring at him as if he was daring him to try to escape.

 

“Soooooo,” Lance mumbled awkwardly whilst wracking his mind for appropriate white-elephant-avoiding small talk, “nice weather we're having huh?” Lance felt his soul shrivel a bit when Keith neglected to respond in favor of staring at him as if he had two heads. Lance opened his mouth again only for Keith to cut him off with a sharp sigh.

 

“Cut the crap, Lance,” he said drily, “if you're not gonna tell me why the hell you were avoiding me, at least spare me from the awkward small talk.” 

 

Lance blanched. He couldn't say that he hadn't expected Keith to actually catch on to his active avoidance of the glaring communication issue that was happening between them, but he definitely did not think that Keith would be so blunt about it. He opened and closed his mouth like a fish, searching for the right words to use to defuse the situation and avoid actually talking about the problem at hand. His brain and his mouth, which seemed to have a mutual agreement to make him look like a bumbling idiot whenever possible, settled on saying, “What? Me? Avoiding you? What? Nooo… Why- I mean- why would you think that? Like why would I even be avoiding you? That's crazy! Me? I wouldn't do that!” Lance laughed and scratched the back of his head while avoiding Keith's eyes.

 

“Lance, Pidge literally told me you were in their room avoiding me and not at some surprise practice.” Keith looked up at him with a sad smile, “It's been three days since i've seen or heard from you. I'm pretty sure that's the definition of avoidance. You haven't even gone anywhere besides your events and Pidge's room! Congrats on your win yesterday by the way.” Keith frowned at him. 

 

He sighed and sat next to Keith trying to figure out something he could say to let Keith know that it wasn't his fault he was avoiding him. the problem was, he had no idea how to say it. IOf course being the idiot that he was, he settled on the oldest line in the book, “Look, Keith, it's not you it's me.” He paused, realizing his mistake and frantically tried to rephrase, “I mean what I'm trying to say is I wasn't avoiding you. Like, I was but not because you did anything wrong or anything-”

 

Keith cut him off, “I think I know what you're trying to say.”

 

Lance sighed in relief. He was hoping he wouldn't have to explain it.

 

“You want to break up with me.”

 

Lance blanched. That was not what he meant at all. He opened his mouth to explain, but found he was completely speechless.

 

“I mean it's understandable. We can announce that we broke up on twitter or hold a press conference or something,” Keith's voice was devoid of emotion, “I figured it would have to happen sooner or later. We could do it today if you want..” 

 

“What, no! Why would we do that,” Lance was panicking internally. He knew the likelihood of Keith liking him was low, and it hurt to act like they were together, but that didn't mean he wanted their fake relationship to end. He would rather have an excuse to be affectionate towards Keith and have it be an act, than have Keith act like they were nothing more than strangers.

 

“It's what you want, isn't it,” Keith didn't meet Lance’s eyes as he stood up to grab his stuff, “we can tell Hunk and Pidge we talked it out and came to an agreement. We end it publicly, and we can both go back to our lives and forget about this whole thing. It's a win win.” Keith looked up finally meeting his eyes with a grin, “you can go back to being a flirty womanizer, and I can go back to living in peace.”

 

Lance felt his heart shatter. He was reminded once again that Keith had wanted nothing to do with him in the first place. They were barely even friends, and definitely not lovers. Lance had gotten his hopes up without even thinking about Keith's feelings. He forced a smile on his face and tried to swallow the increasingly growing lump in his throat, “Maybe not today. We would need to make it more believable that we're having issues. Maybe we could act less lovey dovey, and by the end of next week we can break it off?”

 

Keith nodded curtly. “I'll text everyone and let them know. By the end of next week, we can act like none of this ever happened.”

 

Lance looked away. By the end of the next week, it would be as if he and Keith never met.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> why u gotta go and make things so complicated :,(
> 
>  
> 
> well on the bright side  
> the last real chapter is next lol
> 
> also let me know if u want an epilogue


	8. Question

okay so i finished the last chapter, but i absolutely despised it and deleted it like immediately. Since then, I've been swamped with school work and my own story that I've been working on, so I haven't even had time to think about this fic much less work on it. I finally took the time to reread what I had drafted and idk if I want to take the story in that direction anymore. I need some help figuring out what to do tbh, so please leave your opinion in the comments below. Should I:

edit the story to have Keith and Lance actually communicate their feelings for a happy ending 

Have Klance not be endgame

Do something entirely different with Klance still ending up together somehow

Just scrap the story 

Or just leave it as it is and try to finish as planned.

Let me know what you think and any ideas bc y'alls input is really important to me.


End file.
